VISTA – Vista will ask county election officials to track voter registration cards to gauge the success of its outreach effort that aims to register about 200 Latinos.

Louann Gigante, a member of the Community Outreach Committee, predicted that other cities will conduct similar drives to register Latino voters if Vista's effort meets its goal.

"If we show some success, I think they will follow. If not . . . " she said, shrugging.

The city created an outreach campaign because voters here have never elected a Latino council member, just 700 Latinos voted in the 2002 election, and the Justice Department investigated the city because of both. The city government was ultimately cleared.

So far, the $10,000 consultant that Vista hired to get out the vote before the Oct. 18 registration deadline has registered eight voters – three during a recent visit to DDH Enterprise, a local electronics manufacturer, and five from a visit to Bobier Elementary School. Both are heavily populated by Latinos.

Ten events were scheduled between Sept. 23 and Oct. 6 to sign up voters for the Nov. 2 election, and more are being planned.

Assistant City Manager Rick Dudley said the city had received a box of about 2,000 registration forms numbered in sequential order, and it will ask the registrar of voters to track forms numbered in that sequence to see how well the outreach is working.

"That way, we don't have any personal information, which is none of our business," he said Thursday night.

The city hopes to find out before Election Day how many of those forms were returned but probably won't know which of those registered voters have Hispanic surnames until February when the county can provide further analysis.

A registrar of voters spokesman said the department has checked out blocks of voter registration forms before and would be willing to do it again.

Another voter registration event in Vista is scheduled at 8:45 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. today at North Coast Church, 1132 N. Melrose Drive.